Annika Sorenstam has won it twice and so has Janice Moodie, while Natalie Gulbis claimed the championship one of the two years it was played at Olomana Golf Links. But the name that will be most warmly remembered at this week's 24th annual Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational is Donnis Thompson.

The University of Hawai'i's first women's athletic director, and women's track and field coach, passed away here Feb. 2 at age 75. Thompson started the Rainbow Wahine program with track and volleyball in 1972, the year Title IX began. She oversaw its growth to eight sports before becoming the state's first female Superintendent of Education.

Thompson also worked closely with the late congresswoman Patsy Mink, who co-authored Title IX — federal legislation that made it illegal for any education program receiving federal assistance to discriminate on the basis of gender. It is now called the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.

First-year Rainbow Wahine golf coach Lori Castillo met Thompson when UH — then coached by Lori's father Ron — hosted the 1977 AIAW golf championship. Castillo was 16. She was one of the first to benefit from the work of Mink and Thompson, earning a golf scholarship to Tulsa, but wouldn't meet her again until she and one of her players visited Thompson at the hospital in December.

"She was very gracious," Castillo recalled. "I didn't realize until later that she was really instrumental with Patsy Mink in moving Title IX forward, but I did realize in the '70s what an advocate she was for women's sports."

What struck Castillo that day in December was a different kind of equal rights.

"With Donnis, she never saw color. That was very unusual," Castillo said of the African-American administrator. "I'd never seen that in any person. She's the only person I met who never saw color when they talked with people. What she saw was much bigger than that."

Hawai'i named this golf tournament, which begins tomorrow at Kane'ohe Klipper, after Thompson in 1999. She was inducted into the school's Sports Circle of Honor in 1988 for her unique contributions to UH Athletics. A commemorative sculpture is in the Stan Sheriff Center.

This tournament will be the first played in her memory. Other memories involved the Rainbow Wahine sharing the championship with Arizona in the event's first year. It remains their only tournament title. Bobbi Kokx, now an elementary school teacher on Maui and still one of the state's best amateur golfers, led Hawai'i to the title by capturing the individual championship.

In her first year Castillo hopes her team, which has two golfers unavailable and another making her first start, can make a respectable showing. In the fall, every golfer lowered her scoring average and the same is true this spring, but the team's best effort has been a round of 304.

"I'm hoping the improvement in their games is going to show in this tournament," Castillo said. "How we do with only four players who are tournament-ready is another question. We can't focus on that. ... We shot the 304 at San Diego our first time out after winter. If we could shoot 300 this week I'd be very happy."

Junior Corie Hou led the 'Bows in four of six events and has the lowest scoring average (76.2). Senior Carolina Perez, eighth at the Fresno State Lexus Classic, is next at 77.6.

She and Phyllis Lai are the only seniors on the six-woman team. Castillo hopes to have nine on next year's roster, and has already signed Waiakea's Summer Mizusawa and Kamehameha's Kaili Britos, who weren't born when Castillo was dominating women's golf here in the 1980s.

Hawai'i's last tournament is the WAC Championship, April 20 to 22 in Nevada — unless it wins in Reno. Castillo is not counting this team out. She inherited players who "really bonded together as teammates." They have made her a fan.

"When the flag goes up, these girls play," Castillo said. "They're feisty. It's nice to see.

"In the first year, I'm trying to teach them all things, but we've been in competition most of the season so we can't make big changes. After the Dr. Donnis Thompson Invitational we have three weeks before the WAC. It may sound kind of cocky, but we plan on winning the WAC, even with four players."